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Eight Decades of Ethnic Dilemmas

Iconic sociologist Nathan Glazer on the problems of group identity, affirmative action and Donald Trump.

By

Jason Willick

Sept. 14, 2018 6:07 p.m. ET

Cambridge, Mass.

Like many young people, Nathan Glazer was once a socialist. After enrolling at New York’s City College in 1940, Mr. Glazer, whose parents were Polish Jewish immigrants, joined the radical wing of a Zionist group called Avukah. Looking back, he says, its ideology wasn’t so profound—“something about Jewish and Arab proletarians coming together” against British imperialism in Palestine.